Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1887-06-09
KANSAS GAS.
minneapolis, kansas, Messenger

minneapolis, kansas, Messenger
In a very interesting article published
in the fifth biennial report of the State
Board Of Agriculture 1856, prepared
by Prof. Rubert Hays, U. S. G, S., he
says: "In the gas question as in others
Kansas is the Central State. The
geology of her eastern borders touches
that Of Ohio and Pennsylvania. Her
western limits include shales and sand
stone that ally her to the oil and gas
deposits of Wyoming. Her western
counties may yet find in natural gas a
native fuel, The italics in the above
quotation are the professors. A
volume is here compressed intoa single
paragraph, 'In this gas question, as
in others, Kansas is the central State. .
Prof. Hay is not only high, but disinter-
ested authority. He is not a Kansan
or interested personally in Kansas, but
is geological authority of high order,
connected with the geological survey of
the United States Government, and con-
sequently his testimony is entitled to
peculiar weight Several gas wells have
been opened at Paola, Miami county in
this state, all of which are at this time
furnish an immense supply. Indeed,
so great is the flow that company Is
being formed to pipe it into Kansas
City, distance of nearly forty miles,
in which Kansas City capitalists, prin.
cipally, are interested. The depth OF
these wells varies somewhat IN the same
locality, those at Paola varying from
2s9 to sO+ feet from the surface to the
top Of the ''gas sand or sand rock in
which the gas is found. The gas finds:
however, are not confined exclusively
to sand rocks, as abundant supplies OF
it have been found IN the Trenton lime.
stone formations.
Probably the most productive gas
&elds known to exist at the present
timae are tAose in the vicinity of Pitts.
burg.
To show the great value of natural
gas to any community in which it exists
it is sufficient to state that In the city
of Pittsburg the consumption of gas has
displaced 10, 900 tons of coal per day,
gas taker its place for all the purposes
for which coal has heretofore been used
The two principal wells of this group,
the, BurnsYand Delamatin, are about
l,NQl feet down to the fourth sand
stratum, in WHICH the Gag is found.
| At Findlay, O., where gas was deyel-
oped in November, 1884, the wells were
sent down TO depth of only |, 100 feet
at which depth vast dspQsits we're open
ed in the upper..and lower."siluriap Era
a much older formation than that in
which it appeared at Pittsburg and
strangely enough at less depth from
the surface by 500 feet Findlay is
wessfrom. Pittsbusg and Paola, where
gas Is found at 300 feet, is a long way
west of Findlay. 1t is a question for
the scientists, whether the degrees of
longitude affects the depth below the
surface of the earth, at which the strata
lie that bear these wondt rful deposits.
Gas in abundance has been found at
Fort Scott, Bourbon county, at adeprh
of only a triAe oyer 200 feet. Fort
Scott is doubtless in the same great oil
and gas field as Paola, being only about
fifty miles due south of that point, while
at the two intermediate places, La Cygne
and Pleasanton, gas has been struck.
There can, seemingly. be no good reason
why coal, gas and oil may not be found
right here In Minneapolis. The fact
that coal has been found near US, that
gas is now flowing near Abilene, and
that for years on many of the farms all
about us traces Of coal have been found
in digging for water. All these facts
ought to stimulate our people to make
the effort TO ascertain whether we may
not be as fortunate as other communities
have been that have gone to work with
a determination to know what mine of
wealth old mother nature might yield
up to 9 persistent and we'll directed
effort to obtain il.